Inside CNN, A Struggle To Be Less 'Tabloid'

By JIM RUTENBERG

Published: February 24, 2003

Shortly after he was named president of CNN last month, Jim Walton visited the network's major bureaus. A similar question greeted him as he made the rounds in New York and Washington: Why is Connie Chung's program on CNN?

''People asked complaining questions,'' said a staff member who attended a meeting in New York. ''How is it good journalism? It's tabloid.''

With frequent interviews of people like Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Michael Jackson's former spiritual adviser, and contestants from ''American Idol,'' Ms. Chung's program undercut CNN's marketing position as the one serious cable news network to watch, some staff members complained.

The complaints seem to have resonated. In fact, Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, had singled Ms. Chung out for ridicule, calling her program ''just awful'' in an article in The Globe and Mail in Canada.

No one expects ''Connie Chung Tonight'' to be canceled or to change much any time soon. But executives say they are not dismissing questions about its future.

Ms. Chung's predicament symbolizes a shift, even in the last month, in the network's thinking about its direction in a cable news world dominated by Fox News Channel, which is owned by the News Corporation. Generally, executives are coming to accept, if reluctantly, CNN's status as the No. 2 channel and are focusing on how to attract educated, more affluent viewers who attract premium advertisers.

For her part, Ms. Chung is defiant and says she feels secure at the network. ''I'm very proud of the program,'' she said. ''We have done everything that CNN has asked us to do. We've been extremely successful in producing a program that can stand on its own, and at the same time live up to the standards of CNN.

''My only regret,'' she said, ''is that this anonymous sniping on the part of some is an attempt to demoralize us. It will fail.''

Ms. Chung's supporters say the complaints come from old-line CNN staff members trying to undo recent changes made by the outgoing leadership team of Walter Isaacson, the CNN chairman, and Jamie Kellner, the chairman of Turner Broadcasting System, who is to be succeeded by Philip I. Kent, a favorite of Mr. Turner.

During the Isaacson-Kellner tenure, many longtime CNN staff members cringed as the network retreated from its 20-year-old no-frills approach by adding what Mr. Kellner called showmanship, something that even some old-liners conceded was needed. The new team added hyperkinetic graphics and music, more entertainment and culture features, and more visible anchors from the broadcast networks.

Though CNN never quite copied Fox's format of opinionated political talk shows, it came to resemble its rival in other ways: the use of whooshing sound effects, the liberal use of news alerts, the busy screen.

Mr. Walton, the third CNN leader in less than two years, has made it clear that he intends to pull back from some of these techniques because CNN cannot afford to sully its brand as a straightforward global news provider.

CNN is operating in a different world than it was when Mr. Turner effectively lost his operational oversight of the network in 2000 because of a management shuffle related to the AOL Time Warner merger. Even though CNN's ratings have grown 40 percent in the last two years, Fox's have grown faster, and it surpassed CNN more than a year ago.

Mr. Walton said last week that while he strives for continued ratings growth, he thinks that CNN's business strength ultimately lies with selling itself as the quality news brand in an increasingly bombastic cable news genre.

His strategy includes focusing on a ''high-quality'' audience of affluent people. It is an audience that Fox also says it attracts.

But Mr. Walton has argued that CNN is in a different business, one that is heavier in news compared with its rivals at Fox and even the third-place MSNBC. Fox News Channel may draw larger ratings than CNN, but not higher ad rates, the theory goes. CNN is estimated to draw 15 to 40 percent higher rates than Fox News, though both sides agree that the gap is closing fast.

''The important thing for CNN is to understand who it is, and how it defines winning,'' Mr. Walton said. ''It's not just about chasing the higher number. Quality matters.''

Executives at Fox and MSNBC dismiss such talk as market posturing. They say they do not think CNN is in much of a different business and assert that all the channels are pursuing similar advertisers. ''Obviously CNN has never had a high regard for what the American public wants,'' said Brian Lewis, a Fox spokesman.

Under Mr. Walton, CNN recently removed its constant on-screen reminder of the nation's terror alert status. It is also using fewer ''news alerts'' for events that would not have received such treatment in the past. Other changes are to come, executives said.

''One might say I have a little bit of an understated style, and we may see some of that,'' Mr. Walton said. ''Whatever CNN does across any of its businesses, I want the word 'class' associated with it.''

The question among CNN staff members, and even some executives, is what that might mean for Ms. Chung.